Hi Folks,
I am a bit late with my update as things have been a bit weird the past few weeks. Hank is wonderful in fact, I think I owe this guy so much more than I will ever have time in my life to pay back to him.
Hank's training has continued to evolve to the point where now, he is almost non-reactive to 'most' dogs that run up to us off-leash. He watches me when we are out when a situation is coming up and he isn't sure, he looks to me for direction when he's unsure except for a couple of times when we were out.
One time, we were walking along a wooden boardwalk where there were lots of geese. Hank suddenly decided it would be great to take off and chase them. He has never done this before. He was so gleeful I was almost shocked. The geese didn't think this was very joyful at all and one in particular decided to fly at us. Hank barked - and when the goose landed a bit too close to me, Hank growled and lunged.
It was the type of lunge a dog will do to move something out of the way - his mouth wasn't open and his head was down as though trying to whack the goose with his muzzle. I had a moment where I thought he was going to drag me off my feet. I managed to remain fairly calm and standing and got Hank away from the geese. Hank looked over his shoulder the entire rest of the walk and he was very alert the whole walk home.
But here's the situation that involved Hank and the police.
I had been dating a guy for a few months over a year ago. It wasn't serious - but I liked him - he was funny and gentle at first. There were two incidents where we had gone out with some friends of mine and he got fairly drunk on both occasions and was behaving very badly - he acted jealous and petulant when one of my male friends put his arm around me and he continued making sarcastic and immature comments to him. This happened twice and talking with him failed to bring any resolution so I broke it off. I didn't need the drama and frankly it p*ssed me off.
Just before Hank came last January he called me. He was drunk, asking why I broke up with him, asking for another chance and when I said no and that I was hanging up he said some nasty things - I told him not to call me again and hung up on him.
Zoom forward to a few weeks ago - the week after after my marathon, I was leaving for work and there were flowers outside on my porch. There was a card but no 'from' listed and they weren't from a flower shop or I would have called them. I tried not to think too much about it but it bothered me all day.
Later that night a taxi showed - the driver said he had been called to take me to the party. I had no idea what he meant. We called the company with him right there and the dispatcher told me that someone had called and ordered the taxi in my name. At this point I was thinking/hoping it all must be some weird coincidence.
There were a few more weird things - a magazine that I like showed up in my mailbox, my garbage bins were moved from where I had left them.
Two days ago when I got home from work, Hank was agitated. I let him out in the yard only this time, as I do from time to time, I went out with him to make sure the fence was secure and that the back gate was closed. I was also feeling a bit tense and seeing Hank nervous made me nervous and worried.
I had just gotten out the door with Hank bursting out the door and disappearing into the yard when I heard his barking - really, really serious barking and that wet growling a dog does when it's serious - and then I heard a man's voice. I was so worried for Hank that I flew into the yard (it was dark but the security light had gone on). I didn't even think to run in and grab my phone - I really was terrified for Hank and wanting to get him out of whatever was going on.
The guy was yelling and kicking at Hank - and I realized it was the guy that I had broken things off with over a year ago. Hank had him pinned against the fence and was clearly not going to let him move. I didn't want to try to grab Hank and I didn't want to get in the middle of him and the guy so I yelled to the guy, 'stop kicking at him' and then I threatened him. He put his hands up and stopped kicking at Hank.
This let me get close enough to Hank to bump him with my hip and yell to Hank to 'leave it' and 'good boy', 'leave it' and 'on by' - all the commands that I could think of that he knew to get him to back off. I knew not to try to grab him with my hands until I could sense he was listening to me. Hank let me grab his neck fur (he goes collar-less in the house) and I managed to get him to walk a few steps backwards with me.
The guy was drunk - it was him sending me that stuff and calling me and hanging up etc. He tried to talk to me but I told him to leave - he had broken the latch on the back fence and it was hanging open. He left.
Hank didn't calm down until the police came and the funny thing was when they came in - two huge men, Hank had a second where he flinched but one officer stood in the doorway while the other came and took his hat off and knelt down to speak with Hank. I got him a treat to give Hank and I think Hank has a new friend now. Hank seemed to sense these were good guys and not there to hurt him. It's the first time he's had such close encounters with men - and such opposite extremes so the fact that he was willing to let these large men close to him was amazing to me.
The police were great - they praised Hank. They also advised me to keep a collar on him in the house in case the guy were to come back - not because of having to pull Hank off of him but in case the guy did some property damage in order to let Hank out - if the gate were open, Hank could wander off with no collar on. Hank is chipped but still...
The police spoke with the guy - they said he was scared enough, apologetic enough, worried enough about losing his job, said it was all a misunderstanding on his part, he's mortified, so sorry, getting help for his alcohol problem etc, that they didn't think it would happen again but that after this if he made any attempt to contact me again I could consider charges.
So I am going out now to buy some steak for Hank.
What else do you give a creature like this you feel you owe your life to?
Thank you for reading such a long post. I should add that I now have a student staying here with Hank in exchange for rent she is here with him. Hank adores her and he is a googly-fool with her - rubbing his head on her and gazing into her eyes...it's very, very sweet, and a huge relief for me right now.
